Plant Gardens 101

At Le Domaine aux Quat’Saisons gardening is one of our many passions; here we describe how we planned and developed the Domaine’s substantial garden in the Languedoc, taking it from a barren field to a colourful oasis in just 2 years. Guests staying at Le Domaine can now enjoy the magical garden and swimming pool complex. How did we come to do this?In the spring of 2004 we left our jobs in the city of London in the the United Kingdom and moved to France, simple as that!. We had already bought Le Domaine aux Quat’Saisons, an elegant maison de maitre near Carcassonne. Amongst other desirable features the house was blessed with a 2 acre garden and vineyard; but there was one big problem; there was nothing attractive in the garden whatsoever, just stumpy old vines and worn out fruit trees. As we planned to open the property as a luxury chambre d’hotes accommodation for holiday makers, we set about the task of planning a suitable garden. Little did we know what we had let ourselves in for! Our first Gardening Thoughts – Despair! It was now July 2004 and the Languedoc sun burnt brightly in the sky. Gardening readers of this article may be familiar with this: “the soil, hard baked clay, was like concrete, we could not even pierce the crust with a spade; “the few plants we brought with us from the UK all died in one week after exposure to the sun; “as we cut down weeds they sprang back up like Triffids; “the vines and old fruit trees that spread across the garden area were impossible to remove by hand; tough like steel. “the area was so huge that even after a walk in the garden at midday we needed to rest in the shade and drink copiously. At this point we longed for our corner of an English Garden, with its soft light, damp earth and profusion of flowers. Get Local Help – they have seen this before In despair we turned to Gill Pound at la Petite Pepinerie in Caunes-Minervois. (more…)